GB1318988A - Apparatus for dressing mushrooms and other vegetables - Google Patents

Abstract

1318988 Destemming mushrooms and other vegetables M BLANCHAUD and E BOURNIER 12 Oct 1970 [20 Oct 1969 28 May 1970 and 16 June 1970] 48288/70 Heading A4C [Also in Division B8] Apparatus for cutting off stems from vegetables 1, such as mushrooms having a head part and a stem comprises means 2 for delivering vegetables to vibrating conveying devices 3, 4, 12 which arrange them head upwards, and means for supporting the vegetables via their heads and for carrying them from the vibrating devices to cutting means 31 for removing the stems. Sizegraded vegetables pass from hopper 2 via a flat first vibrating table 3 to a second vibrating table 4 having a plurality of grooves extending with increasing groove-depth from a rear end to a forward end where the vegetables fall into ducts 6 of a third vibrating table 12. Except at rear openings (7), Fig.17 (not shown), the top of ducts 6 are covered by a casing having an upwardlybent rear part (8 1 ) to deflect vegetables through openings (7) and front parts (8 2 ) bent downwards to act in conjunction with air jets at the rear of the ducts to arrange the vegetables stem-forwards and to pass them on to parallel spaced fingers 12A joined to ducts 6 and spaced so that the vegetables are supported stem-down by their heads and are transferred in this orientation to finger portions 14 on a support rod 13. When support 13 is lowered by a ram 15 vegetables are transferred to finger portions 17 by blades 18 moved by a common ram 19 and are then picked up by flexible suction nozzles 20 supported on tubes 23. The tubes 23 are moved vertically by a pair of rams 27 and horizontally by a ram 28, the vertical position being controlled by means of locking rams 30, 33 and catches 25, so that the vegetable stem-bases rest on a support 29 whereupon rams operate horizontal knives 31 to cut off the stem portions leaving the roots, which portions fall into conduit 32 after lowering support 29. The remaining parts of the vegetables are then repositioned and further portions of the stems are cut off and are diverted into a conduit 36 by a moving partition 35. The heads are then released by nozzles 20 and are diverted by partitions 35, 37 into conduit 38. Vegetables not picked up from portions 17 are fed back to hopper 2 via hopper 39 and conduit 40 by means of an air blower 41.